True Tears 13 Closing Captions & Thoughts

I've got to say that this anime is one of my favorites that I've watched so far. It started airing in 2008 and to this day, in 2013 the drawings were very satisfying and the plot, character, and sounds were really good for something that was published 5 years ago. Many animes that I watch by personal preference I can't watch even if I love Romance - Slice of Life - Drama anime because of how technology has advanced in animation. This will be a Synopsis and  full review of the whole anime and also the closing caption thoughts on the last episode of what I think about it. If you don't want to read the synopsis just scroll all the way down to my "thoughts"

True Tears (May contain spoilers)

Synopsis of the whole anime: This anime is a drama - romance - slice of life type of anime, if you really don't like dramatic romances I really don't suggest that you watch this series. At the beginning Shinichi is a boy who is now sharing a house with one of his dad's old friends daughter that had passed on. His Dad's friend left his daughter (Hiromi) in his care and ends up living with Shinichi for high school  He secretly has a longing love for Hiromi but obstacles are in his way (Himself & Enviroment). During this time, he meets a girl called Noe, who is strange and has been labelled as a weird girl who has pen pals with aliens. During the season, he gets closer towards Noe as she tries to find the "true tears" and encapsulate beautiful ones after his grandmother has "taken them away with her to the skies" while he's also trying to find the "true tears" of Hiromi because she seems like she is sad all the time but won't cry. Obstacles come between the three as they all try to share their love for each of them but no one is able to clearly express themselves even if they want to. What will happen in the end?

Synopsis of Episode 13 (May contain spoilers)
In this episode it starts out with Shinichi and Noe's older brother in the hospital. They end up in the roof as they take coffee out of the vending machine in the lobby. At that time their conversations was about making amends of how Shinichi should have stopped Noe from climbing the tree and falling off. Noe's brother asks if Shinichi really knows why Noe can't cry but he says to him, "Self fullfilment maybe?" and that scene ends with Noe's brother saying he won't forgive him and that he should leave. Noe's brother leaves the roof and ends up back in Noe's room while they discuss how they hurt each other and that Noe's brother confesses that it wasn't anyone fault but his since he (was the one who set Noe up with Shinichi who didn't have any feelings for Noe)

Next, you see Noe's brother meet with Hiromi on the street, as they go to a nearby shrine they talk. They both have a conversation about the whole messed up situation that everyone was in. Hiromi states that it was her fault, but Noe's brother reassures it isn't any ones fault. After that, Noe's brother confesses that he does not like her, and he never had. 

At school, Shinichi is approached by Hiromi and says that he should meet up at her house. At her house she only has 1 cup because she broke the other cup. She sips on the same cup as Shinichi while she serves him cake. She says its fine and says "Don't hate me".  Shinichi says that she is acting strange and she realizes shes said something weird and asks him to leave her house. She says to herself with self guilt that shes become someone shes hated and a bad person. Hiromi then is seen at school playing basketball in her school uniform.

Next scene, Shinichi approaches his father saying when does a person cry and he replies when someone has a wavering heart. A flashback of when he does his Muguhi dance he sees Noe in his eyes which means that he had a wavering heart for Noe. Hiromi then enters his household. Hiromi confronts Shinichi that he has to make a decision, even if its not one that is suited for her. He leaves the house with his picture book and states to Hiromi that he will be over for dinner. Shinichi's mother sees this while Hiromi states that "she will be waiting".
Shinichi arrives at the hospital and is with Noe. He wants to show her the picture book that he has created. Noe says she doesn't want to look at it. Shinichi then says he will throw it away then if she doesn't want to. He states that he will throw it where Noe was at the sea where "the chicken tried to fly".

Next scene, he is at the ocean where he is making paper airplanes out of the picture book. Noe arrives with crutches and tries to take the pictures that were shaped into airplanes and thrown into the ocean. At the same time, Shinichi's mother is with Hiromi at her own house and is trying to reassure her that "waiting takes a lot of patience". while she replies with "a thank you". Back at the beach, Shinichi and Noe are together and they look at the picture book. The last page is missing and Noe is fine with that, she'll imagine what will happen. Shinichi realizes all the things hes done is because of Noe, hes able to open himself up only because of her. He then decides to tell her that hes always loved Hiromi, and Hiromi is the only one hes longed for. Noe is seen walking and states that even if she is in pain she can't fly yet.

Shinichi arrives back at Hiromi's place only to find that shes not there. He walks out in the snow path and finds her by the path. Hiromi asks him if he shown the picture book to Noe, and that she wants to see it too. He ignores it and abruptly confesses to her to go out with him. Hiromi replies with a NO because she believes that he chose Noe over her. In the end, Shinichi says that he will always be by her side. She starts to cry as he hugs her. 

Ending: You see Shinichi's monologue to himself saying that people can only cry when theres important people with them. Hiromi is playing basketball. Noe's brother leaves to do his drawing training in a Tokyo University. Shinichi's father is brewing sake at home. Aiko is with Miyokichi and is starting their relationship afresh. It ends with Noe at the chicken coupe where she's finally able to cry as tears flow out into the wind. 

DVD extended ending: Hiromi and Shinichi are walking together at the beach, Noe has started to open up and is making friends. Aiko and Miyokichi are pushing a stall together. Hiromi's relationship with Shinichi's mom gets better (they are putting a kimono together). Noe finally takes a step forward to fly (change and open up), and Aiko, Miyokichi, and Shinichi enter the shrine again in order to restart their friendships. 

Thoughts
My thoughts on this anime is that it was amazing because it certainly did execute one of the best, melodramatic romance one might find themselves in school.
One should note that this anime "true tears" is a theme and not just what a lot of fans call 'dedicated to searching for Noe's tears'. Although, the anime did execute it to look like that, that isn't the main point of this anime. True tears refers to two things in this anime. First is "true" in tears, where you should be true to your feelings, your expressions and your emotions. Second, is the tears, where you should be able to let them free when you are want to express them and not hide in secrecy or holding it in. The main theme here is misunderstandings of emotions and feelings. Three people are affected here, Hiromi, Shinichi, Noe. 

Let me explain my thoughts on Noe. Ideally, I thought the path of this anime was actually Noe but it wasn't and mainly I speculate because of certain factors. She can't express her emotions properly because of her grandmother that had died. She resorted to what we call "freezing time" so that she holds all her emotions and feelings to herself never to express them because of that one promise her grandmother made. "I'll take your tears and take them to sky with me". All in all, Shinichi's role wasn't all that bad. He really wanted to just make her cry, express her feelings and also open up. However, I think it happened the other way around. In the end Shinichi cries first because she was able to let him express himself properly especially with the misunderstanding between who he loves and his indecisiveness of Noe. I was happy to see that Noe was able to release her tears finally and express herself more freely as she was able to gain friends at school. She's become a person that is willing to let go of the past, and persevere into the future from the "frozen time" she kept herself in.

Hiromi is a very interesting character indeed. She drew a lot of controversy in the True Tear's fan society, causing a ruckus in who Shinichi should pick. Many believed that she was a "lamp pole" throughout the whole anime but that isn't true because they haven't really looked into the insight of her character development  In my opinion, it doesnt really matter if it was either Noe or Hiromi. Although I want to state a couple things that people may have missed about her and her "secrecy" that makes her look like a devil.
Her portrayal in the anime was that she was always sad, and the anime did a perfect job executing how she was so sad, and unsatisfied with life because of all the obstacles (Shinichi's Mom, Noe's brother, Aiko, general misunderstandings) that was between her and Shinichi. She couldn't cry but had to endure all those painful things while being patient with Shinichi. In the end, Shinichi noticed this and he wanted to be the one that to help her release all that emotion that she built up in secrecy. What I find that is truly touching and heart wavering is that she still waited until the end for him even with all those hardships she had to endure and she deserves it as Shinichi was there for her and was a longing love between both of them. It really defines what true love is and that the anime really did a nice job emphasizing this(I.e Lips on the cup sharing with Shinichi). Don't stop, don't waste the opportunity even if there are hardships 'I will be the one to persevere through hardships for the one true soul mate I ever wanted' type of thing.

Shinichi: I believe most people really misunderstand him as he is also very misunderstood in the anime. He was always put first into these situations in his perspective of whats happening. His personality was trying to be kind to everyone even though it may cause some misunderstandings between all characters. But in the end, he was able to grow, cry, express himself, and make his decision on who he longs for and who he loves. is what really defines this character as growth. In addition, Noe was what people call as a "real catalyst" for his character development because he was able to feel, give empathy, express himself from these obstacles of misunderstandings through drawing the picture book for Noe while it was also Vice-Versa for Noe.

Additional characters I wanted to talk about:
I wanted to talk about Aiko and Miyokichi as well since their supporting roles in the anime. For Aiko people most likely misinterpret her as a antagonist. Well, that is true but its to the point where its her expressing her feelings. She was put into a very hard position by Shinichi. She was practically forced to date Miyokichi when she truly has feelings for Shinichi and it dates back to childhood friends. Her behavior isn't necessarily bad if you take a perspective that some people have to show their true feelings of love even if it wasn't meant to be. It was really hard for her especially when you have to lie to yourself and date someone you don't even like for the sake of the one you do love. However, her actions do seem to be the extreme, lying to Miyokichi, and kissing Shinichi all those pan out to develop her as a character, and as a girl's experience of unrequited love. Having to deceive herself and put herself in those positions take a lot of guts! In the end, I guess it was for the best that she left Shinichi alone, to further develop his position for Noe & Hiromi. Life's not always in your favour is what I've learned from her! For Miyokichi, he was probably one of the best supporting roles I've seen in the anime. He had to deal with Aiko even if he knew she was lying and also still be best friends for Shinichi. That takes a lot of guts you know especially when you know the girl you love likes another guy. This really showed me what true friendship is between Shinichi and Miyokichi. I'm happy in the end that it turned out great for Aiko and Miyokichi and being able to start their relationship anew and still keep their friendship together.

In the end I was really satisfied even if the ending would have been Noe or Hiromi. It wouldn't have mattered anyways because they both have their good points to become picked as the end pair up. It was fine also to see that Aiko and Miyokichi was together again to sort out their relationship problems as friends. It really seems like they all were ready to grow up and experience new things. Although I wish that there would be an OVA to see what happened between Hiromi and Shinichi and Noe in the college years or something like that. This anime has really lived up to its name since it was produced in 2008 and still appeals to me in 2013. I really give this anime 9/10 In my expectations. It's one of the best romances I've seen so far.